"I see it as part of my essential mission to show
all Americans that the Environmental Protection Agency works
for them," said Jackson, the first African-American
head of the EPA.

Jackson said that long-term environmental issues can
devastate a community if left unchecked, leading to a cycle
of pollution and poverty in the country's poorest
neighborhoods.

"If there is unchecked pollution, if there is
littering, then that will lead to additional pollution,
additional littering," said Jackson. "Businesses
won't invest in that community, not even if you pay
them to do so."

Jackson also said that President Obama would reject the
"false choice" between the economy and the
environment, and said that the president would see the
environmental sector as an economic opportunity.

"The opportunities are there to create green
jobs," said Jackson, "in places in our county
where both the green and the job are absolutely vital."

Jackson cited an initiative in the president's
Recovery Act to weatherize low-income housing as an example
of the compound benefits of the green sector.

"The idea was more than just to make that housing
green, which is very important, but to put 80,000 Americans
to work at the same time that it saves their families
hundreds of dollars a year in energy bills," Jackson
said.

Improving environmental conditions in underprivileged
areas can have widespread positive effects on areas beyond
the immediate community, said Jackson. As an example she
described the affects of polluted air in urban settings on
health-care costs.

"Think about the people who get sick at two or three times the average rate from air pollution because the air pollution in their neighborhoods on hot summer days is so severe," said Jackson. "They're often the same people that predominately, because of their income, get their health care from emergency room. So it drives the cost of heath care up systemwide."...